Egypt

Explore how Saint Francis of Assisi and the Sultan of Egypt risked it all to end the Crusades. A simple Christian friar and a mighty Muslim leader met on a bloody battlefield 800 years ago. What happened next changed world history.

Travel with the scientific team granted unprecedented access by the Egyptian government to solve a 4,500 year-old mystery: what lies within the Great Pyramid at Giza. Using non-invasive technologies, they make a historic discovery.

Some historians claim that the Egyptian chariot launched a technological and strategic revolution and was the secret weapon behind Egypt’s greatest era of conquest, known as the New Kingdom. But was the chariot really a revolutionary design? How decisive was its role in the bloody battles of the ancient world? A team of archaeologists, engineers, woodworkers and horse trainers builds and tests two accurate replicas of Egyptian royal chariots. Driving them to their limits in the desert outside Cairo, NOVA’s experts test the claim that the chariot marks a crucial turning point in ancient military history.

The team travels to Egypt to scan the pyramids—the tombs of the mighty pharaohs—to find out how the necropolis evolved from simple mud-brick structures to the most impressive buildings in the ancient world. They use their cutting-edge laser technology to scan Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Meidum’s collapsed pyramid, the mysterious Bent Pyramid at Dashur and the famous Great Pyramid at Giza.

Around 800 BC, Kush, a little-known subject state of Egypt, rose up and conquered Egypt, enthroned its own Pharaohs and ruled for nearly 100 years. This unlikely chapter of history has been buried by the Egyptians and was belittled by early archaeologists, who refused to believe that dark-skinned Africans could have risen so high. Now, in the heart of Sudan, archeologists are finding indisputable evidence of an advanced African society with powerful armies, vast reach and spiritually driven imperial aspirations to rival the Egyptians’.

Over ninety years ago in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, the greatest archaeological find in history was made: the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb and its golden treasures. It made Tutankhamen the most famous name in ancient Egyptian history. But the real story has become shrouded in myth, with many mysteries around the tomb unsolved to this day. This special combines the latest evidence from a team of archaeologists, anatomists, geologists and Egyptologists to build the ultimate picture of Tutankhamen. Blending 3D graphics, stylized reconstruction and action-adventure forensic investigation, the program takes a 21st-century approach to ancient history, following new scientific research and presenting fresh insights into how Tutankhamen was buried, why his tomb was the only one to remain intact and the enduring enigma around how he died.

Around 800 BC, Kush, a little-known subject state of Egypt, rose up and conquered Egypt, enthroned its own Pharaohs and ruled for nearly 100 years. This unlikely chapter of history has been buried by the Egyptians and was belittled by early archaeologists, who refused to believe that dark-skinned Africans could have risen so high. Now, in the heart of Sudan, archeologists are finding indisputable evidence of an advanced African society with powerful armies, vast reach and spiritually driven imperial aspirations to rival the Egyptians’.